State Workers Get A Pass In Food Stamp Fraud Case

EDITORIAL

Prosecutors sent the wrong message in deciding not to file criminal charges against nearly 200 state employees who appear to have fraudulently claimed emergency food stamp benefits after Tropical Storm Irene hit Connecticut in 2011. The state essentially said the offense was too small to bother with.

Such lax reasoning will simply invite more petty fraud.

Deputy Chief State's Attorney Leonard Boyle said last week that his office closed the case, deciding not to prosecute because the dollar amounts for the allegedly fraudulent claims — in the hundreds of dollars — were low, other types of sanctions were available and "resources would be better allocated elsewhere."

"With respect to financial crimes, we try to address those cases where there's a greater loss to the state," Mr. Boyle said.

Not every case can be prosecuted, of course. But Mr. Boyle's explanation sets a loss floor — of thousands of dollars, not hundreds — under which the state won't prosecute. It's a "get-out-of-jail-free" card for small-time white-collar grifters.

In calculating the loss to the state from this episode, did the chief state's attorney's office figure in the loss of the people's trust in government? This scandal gave the state a deserved black eye.

After Storm Irene's disastrous visit in 2011, some state employees — and some nonpublic workers — sought eligibility for the emergency food stamp program by misstating their income or the amount of money in their bank accounts or both. The emergency program is funded federally but is administered by the state.

At Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's insistence, state agencies began investigations that resulted in scores of unpaid suspensions. The sanctioned workers paid back the state for the fraudulently obtained Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Program money. But they didn't lose seniority or benefits.

Chain stores prosecute shoplifters for far smaller losses.

To deter future crime, the state could have charged workers and accepted as a plea bargain the discipline already meted out. The criminal record that would create would send a stronger warning than two weeks' unpaid suspension does.